Keep On Keeping On

I haven't really felt like writing a lot lately.  I'm still pretty upset about my friend Scott.  I'm pretty much over the shock of it.  Now the sadness and loss has set in.  It hurts that I won't be able to be there for his viewing or his funeral.  It hurts that I remember telling him that I'd see him later the last time we saw each other.  I've known other people that were killed or wounded in Iraq, but Scott was a buddy.  Words cannot express everything, I guess.

Time heals all wounds, they say.  We'll see.  Keep on keeping on, as my lil sister would tell me.

My good friend Tim recently was in charge of a recovery mission on the north side of Marjeh.  I know he was stressed to the max trying to stay safe, keep his Marines safe, and get the job done.  I had no doubt in my mind that he would accomplish all three of those things.  Knowing him the way that I do I was thankful that they had a fairly uneventful trip.  Tim's not the one to walk away from a fight.  Needless to say I was relieved when I saw him the other morning, back at Dwyer.  I don't think I could handle anything happening to another friend this go round.

So anyways....what's new for me?  I finished up a pretty high visibility project in the last week.  I'm pretty stoked about that.  I was working 18-19 hour days for a while trying to keep up.  It was definitely a good distraction from all that was going on around me.  In retrospect I cannot believe how quickly the last 6 weeks have gone.  I even got to sleep in the other day.  That was something I've not had the chance to do since arriving in Afghanistan back in March.

I'm taking it a day at a time.  That's all I can do, I suppose.  I look forward to crawling into my rack each night.  That signifies the end of another day.  That's what I looked forward to the most each day.

At this stage of the deployment I think I've reached the halfway point.  Halfway home!  Not close enough!  Keep on keeping on!